I just feed mine in like a rubber made shoe box, haha well not anymore, I tong feed him roaches now.
If he's on your arm, and you lift up his tail, you'll usually see two pretty distinct bulges and pores on his back legs, which means he's definitely a male.
12 inches is pretty small for a beardie, being the runt, and not getting a ton of protein because he wasn't a big fan of crickets may have to do with his small size.
Small size doesn't really mean bad health though, my Yoshi boy is huge, but the female we have that is pretty old is tiny, maybe about 12 inches, but she's got good weight and eats roaches like a beast![]()